A pre world war one novel of… well, little interest to me as it turned out. The ships are the early ironclads of the 1900’s and although there were sections of interesting detail the story as a whole just didn’t hold my attention.
The setting was clever, a Royal Navy junior officer with Russian family connections joins a Russian fleet as an observer. The love of his life has just been engaged (against her will) to a Russian naval officer twice her age – who happens to be the Captain of the ship our officer is sailing with. It made for a love story of interest coupled with the difficulty of absence created by a sailors life. In one respect, it was realistic – the naval action when they finally reached their Japanese enemy was short and unpleasant. Our central character being most certainly on the loosing side of the battle yet being fortunate enough to survive to reach port.
It was readable but for me not enjoyable. I have another one of the other stories in the series though that I still plan to read, ever the optimist am I. Rootie Rating – 1 out of 5